The Ramsey Show - App - Blackmailed into Following the Baby Steps (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 19, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Alicia is with us in Dallas to start this hour off.

Hi, Alicia. How are you? Hi. I'm doing okay. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Good.

Well, I have a question. This has been really on my mind. I just bought a car. I paid cash for it, $5,000. But I'm wondering if I bought too much car and if I should just trade down into something cheaper because it takes a lot of gas to run this one. And I guess I didn't realize that before I bought it. But I'm just wondering kind of which one would be better, if I should just keep the car

or if I should just get something cheaper. $5,000. Right. What's your income? Well, I make $40,000. Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, a $5,000 car paid cash for when you make $40,000 is not out of line,

so it's not the price of the car that's the problem. Did you buy the wrong car? Well, maybe. So it's a V8. It's a LS430. I always wanted this car, but I didn't know when I bought it that it had a V8. So it takes a lot of gas to operate. Okay.

Note to self, when you're buying a car, you ought to know the engine that's in it and how much gas it takes to operate in the future. How old are you? I am 30. Okay. Well, this is one of those lessons you learn. I'm driving this car a while. I don't think it's a problem.

There may be other problems in your budget that are making this feel like a problem, but this is not a problem. How far do you drive every day? Well, I don't drive a whole lot. Then why does gas mileage matter? Well, I don't know. Well, I figured since I've owned it, it takes about $50 to fill it up. If I drive it every day, I could only last four days.

What did the car you used to do cost you? I used to have a smart car, and it used to cost me $25 max to fill it up, and it would last me for a week. Okay, so it's about double. Yes. Okay, so $25 a week is $100 a month. It's $1,200 a year difference to operate this car. Mm-hmm.

Okay. So I'm going to drive it a little while and keep working on your budget and uh you know keep you know talk to your mechanics if there's anything you could do to tune it up to help it get better gas mileage um but the fact that a a v8 is double a smart car which is not even a real car um i mean it's not even a real motorcycle i don't know it was it was pretty great man i mean i'm joking with you it's okay if you want to drive a smart car i came around the corner of the day in my Raptor, and one of them was a smart car was over in my lane headed right towards me, and I thought, this ain't smart. This is not going to go well.

She swerved and got back in her lane, thank goodness. But, oh, man, that would have been bad. Anyway. Drive it a little while, darling. You're just going through shock a little bit because it is a little while darling you're just you you're just getting you're going through shock a little bit because it is a little bit more expensive and in your budget twelve hundred dollars a year is a lot so it's legitimate that it is costing you more i would drive it for four or five months and if it still is bothering you what it's costing you to drive it then trade for something with a little better gas mileage get you a good little five

thousand dollar honda accord or something like that that's got a good higher, you know, gets better gas mileage. And, you know, and of course, keep working on your budget. Keep working on your income. Keep cleaning up the other parts of your budget to where if there's a lot of wiggle room in your budget, suddenly this doesn't matter much. But I'm guessing your budget's pretty tight. So, hey, thanks for the call.

Zach is with us in Chicago. Hey, Zach, how are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? So I'm going through the baby steps. I recently bought a car with cash, and that depleted my free cash pretty low.

So I'm in baby step three building that up good my question was related to the mortgage um i have a third year mortgage uh third year fixed and my question was should i be thinking about that like a 15 and um kind of making that payment as if it was a 15 um as i'm'm building up that three to six months of expenses? No, I would get my emergency fund in place, and then let's do baby steps four, five, and six, four being 15% of your income going into retirement, five is if there's kids or kids' college you want to address, and then six is you start paying extra on the house,

and that's the first step of paying extra on the house is pay it like a 15. You're probably going to pay it faster than that most people that follow the total money makeover baby steps and play on through end up paying off their home in about seven or eight years that's the typical now some people take some a little longer it might be 10 years some people pay it off in three years but the average is about seven eight years the ones that are following the total money makeover baby steps and so so I wouldn't worry about it. Let's get your emergency fund in place and then work your baby steps four, five, six simultaneous. And six is, of course, pay extra on the house.

And that's at least get it down to a 15. But then let's chunk some more on there, too, as we can. You get a bonus in. You get an inheritance in or whatever. You just knock it on up. You know, keep smacking on that mortgage and hitting it as regularly as you can. So, hey, thanks for the call. Sean's on Facebook.

Dave, what are your thoughts on tithing regularly while in baby step two? The tithe is mostly addressed by evangelical Christians like me and Orthodox Jewish folks. That's the primary place the tithe comes up. And the tithe is a tenth of your income. And every reference to the tithe in the Bible is it's off the top before anything. It starts with that. And you'll notice on our budget forms, even including every dollar budget, the number one light item you fill out before you fill out anything else on your budget is giving.

And that's because giving should be off the top to the tithe level. Beyond the tithe is an offering, and I wouldn't do that until I got into Baby Step 3B, 4, 5, 6, wherever in there. I think you need to get your household taken care of first. Bible's real clear about that as well. And so we're going to get out of debt, get our emergency fund in place before we do much with offerings or do hardly anything with offerings. But the tithe is off the top. Proverbs refers to it as first fruits, which if you think of an agrarian culture, the first thing we pick out of the vineyard, the first thing we pick out of the orchard, a tenth of the crop is going to go to the temple first.

And in our case, the Old Testament storehouse is what's referred to around the tithe, to bring your tithe to the storehouse where the widows and the orphans and the Levites, which are the priests, the preachers, are taken care of with that tithe. So your local church ought to be paying your preacher and taking care of single moms and widows and orphans. It's very clear in Scripture. That's the Old Testament storehouse. New Testament representation of the Old Testament storehouse is the local church. So I hope that helps. Thanks for the call. USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month.

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Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com. Bonnie is on Twitter. Dave, why do you recommend a 15-year mortgage as opposed to a 30-year mortgage? Because you're in debt 15 years less. And it saves you hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra interest payments as a result. And it gets you in a position without a house payment to become wealthy much quicker. People who take out 15-year mortgages have a tendency to pay them off in about 10, and that's what the typical millionaire does by the way I

want you out of debt and staying out of debt forever as quickly as I can if I thought I could get people to do it I would be recommending 10-year mortgages and I do quite often and I really like five-year mortgages and my biggest preference is the hundred percent down plan that's why I recommend 15-year mortgages, and my biggest preference is the 100% down plan. That's why I recommend 15-year mortgages. Is there ever a case where you'd recommend that someone do Baby Step 2 before Baby Step 1? Jack on Twitter. Baby Step 1 is to save $1,000 in the bank. Baby Step 2 is pay off all of your debt except your home, listing your debts smallest to largest.

Jack, when I first started teaching Financial Peace University, that's what I did. There was no baby steps. When I first started, I just said, get your butt out of debt, because the faster you're out of debt, the faster you build wealth. Get after it. Gut it out. But I kept having people in Financial Peace University have little things happen. A $322 alternator goes out in their car.

They blow a tire. It costs $100. Their kid gets sick, and it's $100 to go to the clinic. Little stuff happened. Little emergencies happened. While people were broke and trying to get out of debt, and they're going to fix their car. I mean, they're going to fix the alternator. They're going to put the tire on the car.

They're going to pay the clinic to take their kid, right? They're going to do the emergencies, legitimate small emergencies. And when they did those, they emotionally couldn't recover and get started again on the debt snowball. Believe it or not, what the $1,000 actually does as your baby step one, more than actually giving you a real financial pad between you and bad luck, bad problems, bad Murphy while you're getting out of debt, is more than anything, it gives you a little bit of emotional margin.

Because $1,000 doesn't cover that many things. I mean, if your transmission goes out, that's $2,500, right? If your engine blows up in your car, that's $3,000 doesn't cover that many things. I mean, if your transmission goes out, that's $2,500, right? If your engine blows up in your car, that's $3,000 minimum, you know, that kind of stuff. So, I mean, $1,000 doesn't cover that. If you get laid off work, you know, it's what? I mean, how much does $1,000 cover? Not much. So, it just covers the little stuff that happens while you're learning to budget at the first start of your financial peace program as you just start you know the nine weeks of courses right the nine

week course and you start going to the lessons and you know you're doing the total money makeover book and you're really doing your every dollar budget and as you get started doing that i don't want little things to knock you off your the track you're on to change your life and that's what a thousand dollars does it really from a practical mathematical level is not enough obviously it's not enough we didn't intend for it to be enough we want you to get out of that but we did put that one little bit of savings in there because it keeps people it keeps folks on track if they can fix their alternator stop their debt snowball a minute put their thousand put their 322 dollars back in there so i got a thousand dollars in there again and i got a little bit of pad between me and

life and i'll tell you what else it does jack you wouldn't believe the number of times I have had people come to me after a financial peace class with tears in their eyes and say, I work hard, I make good money, I have never had $1,000. For 10 years, all my money comes in, all my money goes out. For 7 years, for 14 years, all my money comes in. I've just been paying bills. I've been a rat in a wheel. And finally, I have $1,000 in my hand that is mine.

And you'd be amazed. These are people sometimes with a master's degree, and they're standing there with tears running down their face going, I have $1,000. And what does that mean? That means that they have a sense that they're winning with money for the first time. Why? Because they're winning with money for the first time why because they're winning with money for the first time it is truly a baby step but it shows you that you're getting traction it shows you i can do this it so it tells you i i think i think this

is going to work i believe we can do this and there's so much encouragement comes from that one little act of in the first month most people do it if they don't have any money at all in the first month they can usually with a garage sale an extra job and scratching the nickels out of the couch can come up with a thousand dollars and get their their plan started and they go wow for the first time ever i have a thousand dollars sitting here i'm not going to touch it for anything it's just for emergencies but wow i really did it so there's that encouragement as well as the emotional margin that it gives you in case something small happens, as well as number three,

you don't get knocked off the wagon and never get back on by something as silly as a blown tire. Because you've got a way to handle that and a process here, a clear path out. And that was how the baby steps started being developed, was actually at baby step one and two. I just used to have the debt snowball. Some people get out of debt, get out of debt, get out of debt. Now, I had the debt snowball from the first time I started because I figured that part out early in the process.

But the baby steps were not even in the first financial peace book. They were added in later chapters as we edited and added this stuff to the financial peace book. As we added to the course, the baby steps were not the clear path that we used in the early days. We just said, hey, don't buy whole life insurance. Get out of debt. Don't lease your stupid car. You know, get on a budget. You know, here's how you buy real estate a 15-year mortgage not a

30-year mortgage and you know we were just teaching you how to handle money like we still do in financial peace but we weren't the clear path of the baby steps and and i've become militant about sticking to that you can tell here on the air why because it's given so many millions of families the encouragement and therefore the power to actually go and win and then they go win so that's that's why i don't put baby step two before baby step one because i used to make that mistake and baby step one is valuable even though it's very small just a thousand dollars it's valuable for those reasons it's very small, just $1,000. It's valuable for those reasons. It's an interesting thing to think about.

Why does this stuff work so well that we do here? Because it's the law of large numbers. When you have this much data and you've been doing it this long and helped this many people, believe me, the stuff that wasn't working, we've already shined it out. We've already polished it. We've already adjusted it. We've already shifted it. This is not adjusted it. We've already shifted it. This is not our first ride on this cabbage truck, darling.

Joe's with us in San Antonio. Hi, Joe. How are you? I'm wonderful, Mr. Ramsey. It's a pleasure speaking with you. I listen to you almost daily. Thank you, sir. How can I help? I think I have a small dilemma.

I think I've been listening to you about a year now. I hope it's a small dilemma. I think I've been listening to it about a year now. I hope it's a small dilemma. My wife retired about eight years ago or so, and they rolled over her retirement money to... They made her get out or keep it in. Most people got out, and everybody

kind of followed an investor, and it was through New York Life. Well, okay, the money went over there, and we were getting small portions out of it, like a monthly allotment. And we saw that it wasn't really growing, but we were pulling a little bit out of it.

Anyway, to make a long story short, they tied us in for eight years, okay? Eight years comes up, which is last month or so. I started asking around. I don't know why I didn't. I even had your notes about the OPs. I think you talk to your investors. Anyway, one of my neighbors has a retired fireman and he had his money invested with this gentleman. Make a long story short, I

walk in a day. My wife says, can you believe that they already pulled out the money from the, what we, we don't have our money to us. What do you mean pull out our money? I asked him specifically, how are you going to get paid? He said, oh, they'll pay me. And so it happens they pulled out of our money. Then I noticed right before, when I was holding online with you, I noticed that it was through an insurance company.

You say do not invest with insurance companies. Am I right or wrong? I'm sorry. Who did you invest with? We invested with New York Life. New York Life, of course. New York Life, of course, is an insurance company. New York Life Insurance Company.

That's what they do. They're a whole life company, and they have very high fees. So what I would do before you let this get cold is jump online and find a SmartVestor Pro in your area. None of them are New York life agents, I can assure you. And they'll try to sit down and see if they can untangle this mess for you. Yeah, that's not a good place to be investing. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Chris and Catherine are with us. Hey, guys, how are you?

Good. How are you? We're great, Dave. Welcome. Where are you from? We're from Bradenton, Florida, Dave. Tampa area. Yes, sir.

Cool. Good to have you guys. And young men that are with you are who in ages? This is my oldest son, Sean. He's 17, and Kevin is 16. Very cool. And you guys are here all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free screen. Yes.

Very good. How much have you paid off? Well, we have paid off a little over $800,000. Whoa! Yeah, $425,000 of that was debt that we paid off on our own. The rest of that was we received an inheritance. Unfortunately, my father passed away, and he was due for an inheritance, and he wasn't able to enjoy that.

So it came down to my brothers and I, and we took the rest of that, and we paid off all our mortgages and the mortgages on our rental properties also. Wow. So how long did this adventure take? This was an 11-year process. Okay, cool. And your range of income during that time? Started out at about $90,000, and then over this time, been able to well over double that. Okay, very good.

What do you all do for a living? I've been in pharmaceutical sales for about 16 years. Very good. I was in pharmaceutical sales, but I'm a stay-at-home mom. And then about halfway through this, I complicated everything, and I started a nonprofit organization to help children with autism. Very cool. Good for you. That's great.

That's fun. And so your dad was scheduled to receive this $375,000 approximately, right? Yes, sir. And instead, you did. Who passed away that left that inheritance? It was his great aunt that passed away. Okay. All right.

Very cool. Very cool. Wow. And so now everything is paid for. I'm looking at weird people. We feel weird. Houses, rental properties, everything. Everything. 100% paid off. Y'all are just strange. I'm looking at weird people. The house. Yep. The house, rental properties, everything.

Everything. 100% paid. Y'all are just strange. I love it. We do too. What's the house worth? What did we say? We're at about,

it's about $500,000 to $550,000. Okay. What's the rentals worth? Rentals, we have two rentals. They're about

$150,000. Yeah, about $150,000 each. Okay. Very good. Very good. They're about, say, $150. Yeah, about $150 each. Okay. Very good. Very good. So you guys are millionaires probably then. Pretty much. Well done.

Good job. We are. Thank you. Love it. Thank you. This is awesome. What happened 11 years ago that started this? Because y'all have been married more than 11 years because Sean's 20 years old or 17

years old or whatever, right? Yeah. We were married 20 years. Okay. 11 years ago, I wanted to stay home with the kids. So he kind of made a deal with me. If we followed Dave Ramsey, then I could stay home with the kids. Yeah, so that's how it all started.

It was blackmail. Blackmail. But it worked. Yeah, I was fully on board, Dave. I wanted to do everything I could to have her stay home with the boys, and it worked out. And the timing was perfect on board, Dave. I wanted to do everything I could to have her stay home with the boys, and it worked out. And the timing was perfect because by the time we paid off everything except our mortgages, 2008 was coming, and things got very scary. And the reason that Catherine was able to stay home and do that was because we were out of debt.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Very cool. So what kind of debt did you have other than mortgages? You name it. We had everything except student loans. Well, you were making good money, and you're both in sales. And those of us in sales have a tendency to try to out-earn our stupidity.

And we think we can always out-earn whatever. We'll just buy something, buy something, buy something. Exactly. We're a sucker for buying something since we love to sell stuff. That's true. I'm the same way. Very cool, you guys. That's very fun.

So how does it feel to stand here now? Everything is paid for. It's incredible. Like you say, our family tree has changed. My boys were five and six when this process started. All they know is Dave Ramsey and your teachings. And to have them standing here with us now to be able to do this is just incredible. Wow.

Very cool. I'm very proud of these boys. Sean got his first job this year. He now has, and then we opened up a Roth IRA for him. Oh, yeah. So he's already got his well into doing that. Wow. And Kevin is now taking your class.

Oh, wow. Yep. Very good. Foundations and Financial Peace. Oh, at the high school. Okay. At the high school level. And some of my best times this year has been working on the case studies with him during your class.

And he gets to go back home to his class and tell them that he got to meet you and the person that started this. Absolutely. And then he's got the YouTube debt-free screen, too. So there we go. That should be extra credit, I'm thinking, Gavin. I'm just saying. I'll just put in a good word for you here. Thank you.

So good stuff. Well done, you guys. Very well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think it's two things. One is that you have to be on the same page with your spouse and have a common goal of what you want to work for. For us, it was Catherine being able to stay home with the boys. The second thing is just don't give up.

We're 11 years into this and we hit some times when, um, you know, I had a, uh, home equity line. It was large, very large. I thought we'd never, ever pay that off. And there were times when I listened to you every day in the car, cause I was in sales and the debt-free screams would come on. And sometimes I'm like, I just can't listen to those because I want to be there so bad. Um, but I had to say, you know, I'm very happy for those people and we're going to get there one day. So just don't give up those people that are just starting now and they feel like there's just no end to the road. Just hang in there.

It's all going to pay off and it's going to be well worth it. Yeah. 11 years later, you know, you're done. You're done. I mean, this is very cool. Might be step seven. I love it. And now it's all about giving.

Yeah. Put you in that position, and you've got this nonprofit to work that through and so forth. Very cool. So what drew you to the autism cause? Just a personal experience. But it's grown. It's really just all children with special needs. So it's turned out to be a great thing.

Okay. Wonderful. Very cool. Good job, you guys. Okay. Wonderful. Very cool. Good job, you guys. Very well done. All right. It's Chris and Catherine, Sean and Kevin. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's Retire Inspired book for you, number one bestseller.

And, of course, that's your next chapter in your story. Continue this millionaire journey that you're on, an outrageously generous journey that you're on. You're doing everything you're supposed to do. Very well done. All right, again, Chris and Catherine, Shawnee, Kevin, Tampa, Florida, $800,000 paid off. That includes $375,000 of an inheritance, but $425,000 themselves over an 11-year period of time, making $90,000 to $180,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. Yeah. Love it, love it, love it. Well done. Very well done, you guys.

That's how it works. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Laura is on Instagram. Dave, can you sell your car if there's still a loan on it? Sure. You have to pay the loan off as a part of the transaction to get the title because your bank has your title. Whoever has the loan is holding the title of the car.

There's a lien on your title and so the buyer cannot you can't give the ownership of the car to the buyer until you pay the loan off and so if you owe less than the car is worth it's very easy uh you have ten thousand dollar car you owe eight thousand dollars on it if i buy it from you, I give you $10,000. You take that down to the bank. You pay off your $8,000. They give you the title. You put $2,000 in your pocket. It's very easy.

And then you give the title to me, the buyer. It's not a problem at all. Then the second thing is if you're upside down in a car, meaning you owe more on it than it's worth, so the car is worth $10,000 but you owe $12,000, well, you've got to come up with that other $2,000 as a part of this transaction, because if I give you $10,000, I'm going to want the title. And so you got to put the other $2,000 with the $10,000 the buyer gives you in order to pay the car off, and so that you end up with the title in your hand to be able to give it to me if I'm the buyer or whoever your buyer is, right?

So that's exactly how it works. But, yes, you can certainly sell a car if there's a loan on it. In most states, there's different processes in different states, but in most states, if there's a loan on the car, you give me the car. If I'm the buyer, I give you the check. You give me a bill of sale, And we both signed the bill of sale. And I become the owner of the car. You take the money, go get the title, and bring it to me as soon as you get it from your bank.

Sometimes that takes a few weeks. But I leave with your car. You leave with my money. And we do a bill of sale. That's how it's done in most states. But some places it's a little different. Be sure and check on what the process is in your state to do it. But definitely you can sell a car if it has debt on it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. We'll be right back. Matt is with us in St. Louis. Hi, Matt. How are you? Hey, Dave. Good. I've got a question about if I should buy or rent.

I actually moved to St. Louis in the fall to start work. Cool. And I went to school close to home, so I saved up money. And I've got enough to afford, you know, I think to buy a place. And I'm just wondering if it's a wise investment at this point. Well, real estate as a long-term play, especially your personal residence, owning is a wise investment. We tell folks not to buy until they're debt-free, have their emergency fund, plus a down payment. And then on top of that, don't take out more than a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage

where the payment is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay, so you can turn around and get it paid off as fast as possible. So, you got any debt? No, sir. Good. How much money you got saved? About $ it paid off as fast as possible. So, you got any debt? No, sir. Good. How much money you got saved? About $35,000. Good for you.

What's your income? It'll be $53,000. How old are you? 22. Okay. So you're just out of school. What's your degree in? It's in accounting.

Good for you. And you've landed a great job already, straight out. Well done. Yeah, luckily. You dating anybody? I've got a girlfriend, yes. Okay. Pretty steady or what?

Yeah. We've been dating for about four years. That's pretty steady. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, sometimes guys buy a house when they're single, and then they find out after they're married it was the wrong house.

Right. I heard what you said about buying. You need to find out how far you need to be from your mother-in-law. Yeah, in the first year. You get to know each other in the first year of marriage. So I'm not in a hurry for you to buy a house at 22. You've obviously done a lot of very wise things so far. You've saved money.

You've gotten a really good job in a career field that's very marketable, gotten a degree in that career field that's very marketable. You know, you're obviously wise beyond your years in all of those regards. If you want to buy something, hold back enough of that $35,000 to call it your three to six months of expenses emergency fund and buy. I wouldn't be mad if you waited 18 months and see how this relationship stuff goes and pile up a little more cash i just don't want you to wait 10 years to buy right yeah so and i wouldn't and i'm not telling you any of this regarding how hot the market is one way or the other it's more based on where you are in your stage of life and the

things that are going on with you, you know, you can take your time a little bit. I would buy a home in the next few years. You can do it now or you can do it in the next few years, whichever is the place you want to do that. But I can promise you that two things would occur if you were to marry this young lady. One is your household income is going to probably double, which would

change the house you would potentially look at and secondly uh obviously uh you know her opinion her vote is going to come into the equation um and that's a minimum so uh you know you might buy something and then you may sell it and move after you get married but that'd be okay too as hot as this market is you're probably going to come out on that it's not the end of the world so um you can go ahead if you waited two years and see how this other stuff plays out it's not the end of the world i wouldn't wait five years i wouldn't wait 10 years michelle is with us in boca hi michelle how are you hi dave how are you better than i deserve. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help you today?

I'm so grateful for you, Mr. Ramsey, and having met you. Thank you for coming down to Church by the Glades. We really appreciate you. Thank you. We love that church. I'm wearing Pastor's shoes he gave me today, as a matter of fact. Here, look, YouTube. He gave me these really cool shoes.

Oh, he's very cool, actually. He was cool. Shoes are way cooler than me so all right so what's up how can i help okay so we're currently in baby step number two down to our last big student loan um which we should be done with by october god willing um my spouse and i inherited a home about four years ago, when my mom passed away without leaving a will. So I had co-signed for her on that, and we were on the deed. I was told with rights of survivorship.

I've paid all the bills on there. The house has been rented. And I have a brother at my issue right now because I've heard you in the past, sorry, I'm really nervous. I've heard you in the past say that we should not have a property, which is greater, you know, at a distance. We are here in Florida, but the house is about five and a half hours away. The renters are, they are really great. They even pay on time or early. What is the house worth? The house is worth, I got some comps from one of your ELPs and another realtor as well,

and they told me maybe about we could put it on the market for about $189 is what I was told, $189 to $199. So if you had $150,000 piled in the middle of your table your kitchen table the chances of you going five hours away and buying a rental property is zero right okay so the only reason you would keep this property is that you're emotionally attached to it because it was your mom's did you live in this property as a child i I lived in it as an adult. I went to grad school and stayed there with her. She helped me out. But my issue is that I have a brother who is not on the deed and he's not on the home and who I would like to preserve a relationship with. He is a realtor and he lives up north and he's not in his market, but he's not really on board with me selling the house right now

because he feels that we're not going to make much of a profit. You're going to make all profit because you didn't pay anything for it. And he's not on the deed, and it's not his problem. So if the only way you can keep your relationship with your brother is that you do what he says and what he says is a bad idea, you've got other issues with your brother. He's an older brother, isn't he? Of course he is.

He's acting like it. Yeah. So, you know, I would just gently and kindly say, so you're planning on giving him some of the money, I take it. Well, I mean, I don't want to sever the ties, and I was thinking of maybe splitting it with him. I mean, though he has not truly, and honestly, he hasn't contributed to it. Right. There was no will.

Was there any indication from your mother that was what was supposed to happen? No. Okay. Well, I mean, again, a relationship you have to pay for is called prostitution. I mean, that's not a relationship. If the only way this guy's going to be happy is you give him money and he gets to tell you what to do, he's got other issues. Well, he hasn't told me that directly. Okay. He hasn't told me that directly okay he hasn't told me that directly but i don't mind if you want to split the money with him i want you

to do it out of strength rather than out of intimidation no no right well i mean i'm afraid i'm not going to have a relationship if he if i don't give him the money that's intimidation right that's not strength so i want you guys to pray about this. Talk to God about it and say, this is your house, God. What do you want me to do? You're my father, my brother. His opinion counts, but it doesn't make my decisions. If I'm in your shoes, I'm selling the house. And if you want to give him some of the money, I'm okay with that.

Do it from a sense of peace, a sense of strength, not a sense of I'm trying to make someone happy who's never happy you know you just you you can throw money at people like that your whole life and it's never enough so uh i mean your mom didn't leave him the house uh it's apparently a reason so uh you know but again if there's some kind of other conversations that were had with your mom that i'm not privy to in this discussion then we can change that whole thing so but i would not be keeping the house and if he wants to if he wants to buy it he can buy it he can buy it but i don't know how we are making a profit on it because it's not his house. So besides that, the profit issue is not an issue. You would not put $150,000 cash in a rental five hours away.

It's not wise. So I hope that helps you. I'm selling it. The only question is whether he's going to be mad, and I may give him some money, and the only question is whether he's going to be mad. But those are just things you have to work through as a part of the relationship. It's not part of the decision, really.

Thanks for calling. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer. Blake Thompson, our senior. He's now our chief production officer here at the offices of Ramsey Solutions. And Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, and we'll be back. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.

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